The Illusion

Where do people get their ideas? Why do so many people think they’re entitled to something when they haven’t done anything to deserve it? The illusion that you can get something for nothing is spreading. The quality factor is decreasing. People’s standards are also decreasing, and as a result, they are settling for less. Too many people are living in denial. A fantasy world. Don’t believe me? Let me give you an example. Doug, a fifteen year old, is a sophomore in high school. His attitude and so many of his fellow classmates’ is, “school is such a waste of time”. So, Doug obviously can’t wait to get home from school and jump on the computer and later on, play the oh-so-expensive Wii (that his parents bought him because it was a “necessity”). It’s getting late and Doug realizes he “forgot” to do his homework. He blows it off and falls asleep, listening to his iPod (the fifth one he’s had in four years). The next day at school, Doug is texting his friends in class with his new cell phone. He thinks he’s so cool. He feels like a rebel, not listening to what the teacher is teaching. Does he seriously think that the teacher is teaching him for his/her own health? Doug is only hurting himself by taking school as a joke. How does he think he’s going to graduate from high school, or even continue on to the next grade, with his attitude? Sure, he thinks life is great now, but that’s only because he’s never lived in a world without his iPod, cell phone, Wii and laptop computer…oh and that flat screen TV in his room especially teaches him how difficult real life is. Not. Doug doesn’t understand how the real world works. He, like so many other people, are living in their own little worlds. Where did Doug get his iPod, cell phone, Wii, laptop and TV? His parents. They’re the ones who paid for all of Doug’s high-tech items with the money they earned from working at the jobs that they graduated from high school and went to college for. You would think that all of this would sink into Doug. Put effort into school, take your head out of stupid little social things that won’t matter the next week, graduate, go to college, get a job and earn your own money, so you can have the best life possible. But, Doug does not put these things together. It is because his parents have provided him with so many things that he doesn’t deserve, that Doug’s entitlement attitude was formed. His grades are close to failing, yet he’s got the best cell phone plan out there. He has wireless internet in his room, which he promised to use for school research, but instead only uses it to check his Facebook status. Doug is only one, out of the millions of young and old, who have the same attitude and belief that they are entitled to something, when they have done nothing worthy of rewarding. It’s the younger people that we need to be worried about. They’re the ones who are going to be running our country in a matter of time. We’re raising a generation of slackers, bums, and uneducated people. Everyone has something to complain about, yet no one steps up to do anything about it. If this continues to be the way of life for a whole generation of people, it’s only going to get passed on, year after year after year. Imagine what the American society will look like in thirty years or less. America will become a third world country and other countries will take us over, because we became lazy and stopped caring. Take a look around you and I bet you can name at least ten people you know, who are just like Doug. Sound familiar? Yea, I thought so. Scary isn’t it? Look. It’s simple. We are building a backwards society. If we ever want to make America stronger, we have to do the exact opposite of what we’re doing right now. We need to increase our standards; not decrease them. We need to put effort into things and stop doing jobs and leaving them half done. We need to work together, help each other and make everyone understand, before they too, fall into the illusion and our hopes of a better America are gone.

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